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thurrock bees

Drone Bee
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hi all
I got this email from the National Bee Unit. Im sure some maybe intereted in it........


Dear Mr ***********
A note regarding the Asian hornet (Vespa velutina), and the NBU’s current activities concerning this exotic pest threat.

The NBU is very aware of the recent arrival and spread of Asian hornets with the EU (France), the implications of this to beekeepers, and their understandable concerns. To bring you as up to date as possible, earlier this year the Non Native Species Secretariat (NNSS) requested the NBU to produce a formal Risk Assessment for the Asian hornet with respect to beekeeping in the UK (i.e. England, Scotland and Wales).
The draft assessment has been completed (in Sept. 2010), by the NBU and members of the Applied Entomology team at Fera. It considers in as much detail as possible, based on available literature, available scientific evidence and personal accounts, all feasible pathways of entry into UK – how these are regulated and potential volume of movement along each pathway (i.e. relative risk posed). It discusses likely impacts on honey bees and other insect prey sources (which may for example be important pollinators), possible methods of control, and implications to human health and amenities, should the Asian hornet be found over here. It also lists some actions that would be useful now to help “keep the hornet out”.
This lengthy document is currently under review by peer(s) in the field and by the Non-Native Species Risk Analysis Panel (NNRAP). In the meantime, the NBU is liaising with our colleagues in the NNSS to discuss what can do now to further raise awareness and the priority with which likelihood of entry should be addressed. In the immediate future we will be working on a Contingency Plan. A “Species Alert” for V. velutina has been posted on the front page of the NNSS website. We are working together to produce an identification sheet for V. velutina which will be made available through BeeBase and the NNSS website. In the meantime, BeeBase already posts a certain amount of information about V. velutina.

The NBU’s team of 60 Appointed Bee Inspectors carries out an annual apiary inspection programme across the eight beekeeping regions that comprise England and Wales. In a typical year the NBU’s Inspectorate makes between five and six thousand apiary visits, inspecting between 24,000 and 29,000 colonies. In 2009, however, ~40,000 colonies were inspected. Inspectorate personnel are already aware of the threat posed by the Asian hornet, and are clearly in an excellent position to educate the beekeeping community accordingly. However, other media and avenues of dissemination are being explored for use by, for example, garden centres, fruit and flower importers etc. The Plant Health and Seed Inspectorate (who monitor imports of fruit, flowers, and soil-bearing plants etc. that provide potential hibernation niches for mated hornet queens) will also be trained (January 2011) to identify and report any finds to the NBU.

The NBU is currently requesting that members of the public who suspect they have found an Asian hornet should a notify us immediately, providing as much information as possible. If possible, they should send us a sample for examination to confirm identity.



To unsubscribe to these updates, follow the link below.

https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/secure/beekeeper/unsubscribe.cfm?id=32536

Kind regards,

National Bee Unit.
 
Oh dear, another clanger. Seems that they are not even aware of Northern Ireland as part of the UK! Some poor lowly soul thinking UK, when Great Britain is really what is meant.

Right dipsticks, if they can't even get that right.

Regards, RAB
 
having heard the SE bee inspector talk at sussex meet recently there was mention of the discrepencies of coverage by FERA/NBU - wales has opted in but I thought scotland hadn't (perhaps until recently). NI was not covered.

however to quote from beebase "BeeBase is the National Bee Unit website. It is designed for beekeepers and supports Defra, WAG and Scotland's Bee Health Programmes". no mention of NI.
 
Well what's the point of spending money writing volumes on Asian hornets and producing lots of plans and doing nowt with NI when you can cross by ferry with no checks?

Bunch of muppets in my view.... Waste of taxpayers' money...
 
Nbu

i can foresee a time in very near future when there is either a "hive tax" levy to support the work of the NBU OR an inspection fee (or both).

Presume this forum will be used to organise the civil disobedience by beeks.
 
i can foresee a time in very near future when there is either a "hive tax" levy to support the work of the NBU OR an inspection fee (or both).


And how do you rekon they could enforce this.....with all the job losses and cutbacks....and not having a clue how many hives or beekeepers there actually are.
 
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This beastie has been found this year in Paris. Informed opinion over here is that it could not have spread that far so quickly naturally, and it must have hitch hiked somehow.

With so much goods traffic between France and England I think it is a pretty sure bet that the first sightings will be in Kent, with Wales, NI and Scotland safe for a while longer.

I have had to deal with them for 2 seasons now and so far have found them to be no worse than the European hornet. ie. they take individual bees, and quite a lot of them, but so far have not attacked mob handed. A determined effort to trap Queen hornets (of both species) is required from late February to mid May.

The leaves are beginning to fall now and I will be searching for the nest(s) that have been bothering my hives - too late to do anything about them but at least it will give me some idea where to set my traps to catch the new queens as they emerge from hibernation.

I have read reports of colonies being wiped out and our "county" assoc reports 40 beekeepers giving up, whether this was due to hornets, varroa or compulsory declaration of location and numbers of hives I know not:banghead:
 
"And how do you rekon they could enforce this.....with all the job losses and cutbacks....and not having a clue how many hives or beekeepers there actually are."
__________________
Detain beekeepers for a month under the prevention of terrorism, interrogate at 20,000 foot in american planes and verify extracted information using satellite images or drone planes ?
 
Presume this forum will be used to organise the civil disobedience by beeks.

It depends,we might do a secret deal for a wedge of money and allow them to use our logo on any literature saying we endorse it.

If any member complaign's or shouts foul we can just ban them and remove that members posts.

Then again.........................Maybe not.

I think you may be right afterall dr st.
 
"And how do you rekon they could enforce this.....with all the job losses and cutbacks....and not having a clue how many hives or beekeepers there actually are."
__________________
Detain beekeepers for a month under the prevention of terrorism, interrogate at 20,000 foot in american planes and verify extracted information using satellite images or drone planes ?


groan.......taxi for MBC!
 
when jersey had their AFB outbreak in may they called in the NBU for help.
within a week the states of jersey government had passed an act requiring compulsory registration of beeks.
 
when jersey had their AFB outbreak in may they called in the NBU for help.
within a week the states of jersey government had passed an act requiring compulsory registration of beeks.

Interesting,athough much smaller, how much do they make them pay per hive on Jersey....and is it for every nuc or split they do as well,what about swarms collected.....must be loads of paperwork,and checking.
 
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I think we should be proactive and suggest to the government that they need to impose compulsory registration of every bee. That should keep them busy for a while.
 
I think we should be proactive and suggest to the government that they need to impose compulsory registration of every bee. That should keep them busy for a while.

I agree.....and each bee should be ear tagged as well,and call out the bee inspectors to examine your bee's every two days......think someone not a million miles away already pi**ed them off doing the latter part.
 
ear tags would help at the bee auctions
 
Oh dear, another clanger. Seems that they are not even aware of Northern Ireland as part of the UK! Some poor lowly soul thinking UK, when Great Britain is really what is meant.

Right dipsticks, if they can't even get that right.

Regards, RAB

Hmmmm, don't think the NBU covers NI so they may be correct in one sense. I think DARDNI cover bees in NI.
 
i can foresee a time in very near future when there is either a "hive tax" levy to support the work of the NBU OR an inspection fee (or both).


And how do you rekon they could enforce this.....with all the job losses and cutbacks....and not having a clue how many hives or beekeepers there actually are.

Actually based upon the evidence from New Zealand this wouldn't be a bad move. Those who went to the National Honey show on the Saturday and sat through Dr Mark Goodwin's lecture would most likely have formed the same opinion.
New Zealand had a very serious AFB problem. After 10 years of Goverment funding with a scheme very similar to our own FERA inspection scheme, and an initial sharp decline followed by a steady rise back to nearly the same levels, the Government withdrew all funding and scrapped the inspection scheme.
Their message to the bee keeping community was "police yourselves ... it's your problem deal with it or not".
It took 2 years for the beekeeping community to agree a set of legislation and then have it passed into law. As a result of this the AFB rates dropped from over 2.5% to about 0.2% over a 10 year period before the arrival of varroa distracted everyone for a couple of years. Figures aren't yet available for this year but the trend for the last couple of years has been downward again - if I remember correctly the rate last year was about 0.35% down from a high of 1.1% 2 years previously.

The whole policy works because every beekeeper has to certify every hive every year and every hive is registered. If the beekeeper is not qualified to certify their hives themselves they have 2 choices.. get their mate who is qualified to do it or pay a qualified beekeeper to do it.

As with everything relying on "everyone else" to do something about it means nothing gets done about it.
 
Hivemaker.;93252And how do you rekon they could enforce this.....with all the job losses and cutbacks....and not having a clue how many hives or beekeepers there actually are.[/QUOTE said:
BeeBase ... is a good start
 
Jimmy,

I was referring to the incompetance of the writer and proof readers (presumably) before a document like that is distributed.

There is a subtle difference, lost on many these days (by the look of things), between the British Isles Gtreat Briain and the UK.

If they cannot even designate the place/regions/countries correctly, what confidence does that give one, as to whether the document is a good description of the real state of the situation and clearly defines the measures being put in place.

RAB
 
BeeBase ... is a good start

I agree.....you can find every beekeeper,every apairy site,temporary or otherwise, and every hive by looking on beebase. Its a good website.
 

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